No really, we’re not even kidding. A story in the Times had all the deets, but here’s the parts you all will care about. Vaseline branding machine BBH headed to a small Alaskan town called Kodiak with a bunch of bottles of lotion, which they distributed for free from a local store.
Mistake 1: Taking sales away from a local store in a relatively small market where the owner might actually care about not having sold lotion. Whatev.
So the reps set up a table and hand out two free bottles of goopy-slimey goodness to anyone that wants them. The catch: the giftees had to divulge which person had told them about the giveaway. In doing so, the reps were able to create a “social network” map of the town, and link back to the person who was extolling the freebie most.
That person was one Petal Ruch, who according to the Times is a voice coach and mother of four. Who better to hawk lotion than a buttery-voiced mommy (blogger? not yet anyway)?
So now Ruch is representing the brand in a pseudo-mentary (that’s pseudo and documentary melded together…like ginormous). Hope it goes better for them than it has been for…the polar bear, which is nearing extinction, possibly due to global warming.
Gawker via Times
More: “BBH’s Blacklist”